With two black candidates - Keith Johnson and Charlie Maddox - and a white one, Commissioner Tom Chasteen, who's a member of the NAACP, it won't be easy for black Athenians to decide who to vote for next year.

And with widespread dissatisfaction lingering in East Athens and northern Clarke County over issues like the new fire station, community park and dance center, the decision will be an important one.

Although Fire Station No. 9 is progressing, unpopular designs for the East Athens Community Park are being revised and the East Athens Dance Center is set to open next month, some black voters still are waiting for the county to pull the rug out from under them - or still are bitter about long delays in those projects while others like the Five Points fire station went ahead with all due haste. Lack of water and sewer lines in rural black neighborhoods is another common complaint.

Johnson is tapping into that dissatisfaction by making equality of services, a clause in the 1991 charter that unified the city of Athens and Clarke County governments, the centerpiece of his campaign.

The charter declares that former county residents would get the same services - water, sewer, sidewalks, public safety, trash pickup - as former city residents. Fifteen years later, that standard hasn't been met, Johnson has said in several letters to voters in past weeks. He won't go so far as to say the city and county need to be separated again, but is calling for a charter review commission to examine the issue.

But while many East Athens residents remain suspicious of the local government's intentions, it's important to note that it was current Mayor Heidi Davison who finally delivered the fire station and water lines to north Clarke County.

Rusk on the Web: Andy Rusk is the only Athens-Clarke mayoral candidate so far with a Web site, www.andyrusk.com.

On it, the 25-year-old carpenter continues his campaign to draw younger voters who three years ago went largely for current Mayor Heidi Davison, but are weary of what many see as a heavy-handed approach, especially on downtown matters.

In a humorous, straight-shooting style, Rusk gives his take on:

The smoking ban: "Nobody goes to a bar for their own good health."

Downtown security cameras: "Yeah, they creep me out a little, but if those cameras save one life, prevent one terrible crime, or convict one violent criminal, then they are worthwhile."

The stormwater utility: "Streamline the law, leave residential property out of it, identify the big polluters and tax the hell out of 'em."

Development and growth: "Listen, we gotta have more mixed-use development in East Athens."

Rusk also proposes to fuel all county vehicles with biodiesel, a form of fuel made from recycled cooking oil that pollutes less than ordinary diesel.